• Business Week, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:45 AM

Rumor has it the Federal Trade Commission is seriously considering a "Do Not Track" list that would let Web users opt-out of data tracking. Consumer privacy groups have suggested as much, saying the marketing practice is out of control and that industry self-regulation is no longer effective. To the layman, it might sound as though there is no self-regulation at all, and that consumers are powerless to do anything about the backlog of data being collected about them.

That's untrue: "Informed consumers can, using the tools available right now on their computers and choices companies provide them, control the extent to which they are subject to behavioral marketing," says Christopher Wolf, an online privacy lawyer. What's really needed, he says, is greater clarity about data collection, rather than a new set of rules.

Moreover, a "Do Not Track" list would be incredibly difficult to enforce, being similar to a "Do Not Call" list in name only. Not only would the entire online advertising industry-which many see as the future of the media business-suffer, but consumers would, too, as the costs of compliance are passed on to them.

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